Hemispheres of the Brain

13. Hemispheres of the Brain

14. Hemispheres of the Brain

18. Some Psychological Disorders Due to Brain Damage

19. Aphasia - Language Problems • Broca’s Aphasia (Speaking) • Wernicke’s Aphasia (Comprehension) • Alexia (Reading) • Agraphia (Writing) • Anomia (Naming) • Acalculia (Math Operations)

20. Agnosia - Recognition Problems • Object Agnosia • Amusia (Tones) • Prosopagnosia (Faces) • Movement Agnosia • Astereognosia (Touch) • Neglect Syndrome

22. Milner’s Syndrome & Korsakov’s Syndrome • A Complete Inability to transfer New Information into Long-Term Memory

23. Kluver-Bucy Syndrome • Hypersexuality • Lack of Emotion • Compulsive Oral Exploration • Psychic Blindness

24. Development of Cognition in Children • The “5-to-7 Shift” • Faster RT develops • Better fine motor coordination • Faster Cognitive Processing • Self-Understanding/Self-Criticism

25. Theory of Mind (TOM) • Necessary Precursor to the 5-to-7 shift • Ability to understand others’ perspective • Detecting the Presence of Theory of Mind • False-Belief Tasks • “Mean Monkey” • Factors Affecting False-belief task performance • Parent income/education/occupation • Engagement in fantasy/pretend play • Autism (Mindblindness?) as a failure of TOM?

26. Structure of Language • Phonemes • Smallest pronounceable unit of speech • Processed in parallel • Morphemes • Smallest meaningful unit of speech (e.g., ing, de, ly, in) • Constituents • Phrases or other basic units of sentence • Immediate Constituents = high level parts of sentence • Ultimate Constituents = individual words

27. Processing Language • Comprehension of speech entails identification of constituents • Syntax (rules of grammar) essential to language comprehension • Must analyze constituents to identify: • Surface Structure of Sentence • Deep Structure of Sentence • Speech Errors

30. Nonverbal Aids to Language Use • Pragmatics • Nonverbal Cues • Paralanguage • All of the above are a form of “Metacommunication”

31. Patterns of Language Development in Children: Stages of Understanding Language • Evidence that a fetus processes sounds of language: • Recognizes mother’s voice at birth • Prefers native tongue at birth • Infants cry in rhythm of native tongue • 4 months of age = recognizes name • 6 months of age = clear preference for native vowel sounds • 8-10 months of age = suppresses responses to sound combinations not found in native language • Kids are learning phonotactics • Necessary for learning word boundaries & syntax • Kids RECEPTIVE vocabularies > EXPRESSIVE vocabularies

32. Patterns of Language Development in Children: Stages of Generating Language • 2 months of age = cooing/babbling • 4-6 months = range of babbling gets restricted via operant conditioning • 7 months = canonical babbling (syllables bigger than phonemes) • 1 year = actual words mixed with canonical babbling • 18 months = expressive vocabulary of about 50 words • 2 years = 300 word vocabulary (concrete nouns appear first) • First, single words express complex ideas, then . . . • Duos/Telegraphic Speech • Kids have trouble • Learning synonyms & grasping that objects can have more than one name • Between 2-3 years = Fluent grammatical conversation suddenly appears • Cross-culturally, girls produce language sooner than boys.

33. What Can Parents Do to Facilitate Language Learning? • Children need to hear speech directed to them • Use short sentences • Use a lot of concrete nouns • Avoid pronouns • Restate child’s clumsy sentences

34. Evidence for an Innate “Language Acquisition Device (LAD)” • The ease with which kids in even linguistically impoverished circumstances learn language • Highly specialized brain mechanism and neural circuitry devoted to language • Linguistic characteristics common to languages everywhere (“universal grammar”) • Kids effectively “create” language • The importance of a critical period for language learning • Universality of “Motherese”

35. WHY Did Language Evolve? • It was adaptive! But when exactly did it appear? • Dunno . . . . • Evolutionary Advantages of language: • Chunking large amounts of information symbolically • Facilitated communication of vital information • Location of resources, exploitation of new habitats • Female language superiority linked to her role as “gatherer?” • Intensely social nature of humans drove evolution of language (like grooming in primates) • Organization of large social groups • Dialects/languages may have evolved as a way of distinguishing in-group from out-group members. • For kin selection/altruism purposes • The Evolutionary Psychology of Gossip • The “Ape Language” Controversy

37. Factors Affecting Age of Human Menarche • Genetics • Nutrition Levels • Predictability of Resources • Levels of Family Stress • Quality of Relationship with Parents • Insecure Attachment Style as Infants

39. Attachment Styles Secure Attachment: (about 60-70% of American Kids) - actively plays and explores, uses mother as a secure base - distressed when mother leaves, pleased when mother returns; easily comforted following separation - more direct contact with mother following separation Avoidant or Anxious-Avoidant: (About 20% of American Kids) - little attachment to mother (may even be friendlier to stranger) - little separation distress, may avoid mom during reunions - most likely to display anger Ambivalent or Anxious-Resistant (About 10% of American kids) - do not explore much; sticks close to mom - intensely upset by separation; angrily resists contact during reunions Disorganized - Disoriented - most insecure style; very confused/contradictory reunification responses - usually occurs only in seriously dysfunctional families

40. Variables Related to Attachment Style • Amount of physical contact • Amount of maternal stimulation/encouragement • Frequency/intensity of positive feelings directed toward infant • Degree to which soothing techniques are effective at calming child • Match between parenting style and needs of infant

42. Parenting Styles

43. Parenting Style

44. When Do Primate Fathers Invest in Children? *When the male has a relationship with mother *When Confidence of Paternity is High *When additional mating opportunities are low *When the infant is familiar to the male *When infant survival depends upon the father’s help

45. Factors that Affect Maternal Investment Decisions *The health of the infant *The stability of the mother’s marital status *The reproductive value of mother (Age + Health) *Access to resources *Amount of social support

47. Investing in Sons versus Daughters • The Trivers-Willard Effect • Does sex ratio of sons to daughters depend upon how favorable the mother’s life situation is?

48. Investment as a Source of Conflict between Parents & Children • Kids want it all, parents have other agendas!

49. The Role of Birth Order

50. Birth Order & Personality